The Red Button?

dogpile

Why does this interactive feature for the bbc not work on a upc digital?


we have bothe Sky and UPC, works on Sky obviously but not the other

Ranicand

dogpile wrote: »

Why does this interactive feature for the bbc not work on a upc digital?


we have bothe Sky and UPC, works on Sky obviously but not the other

Every TV provider has it's own software.

Sky uses a system called Open TV I think Virgin cable in the UK has another system and Freeview and Freesat use other ones again.

BBC had to write the software for each system.

SKY is mainly for the UK however BBC 1 and 2 NI are on the Irish EPG but this uses the software for the British market.

UPC Ireland does not operate in the UK and BBC will not spend money on creating a version for the UPC platform as BBC are funded by the UK Government.

icdg

To make matter worse, while Sky has just one platform to work with, UPC has effectively three different ones - UPC, NTL, and Chorus. All have different software and different EPGs. A nightmare to manage.

On UPC boxes, the red button DOES work on Euronews and the Info channel. But that's proof of concept only really. Digital has been around nearly twelve years and RTÉ has in that time shown no interest in developing interactive apps for either Sky or UPC (or its predecessors) - in the early days they made some noises that they might do this once DTT started but they've said nothing in years and appear to have no plans for red button services on any platform.

Kensington

dogpile wrote: »

Why does this interactive feature for the bbc not work on a upc digital?


we have bothe Sky and UPC, works on Sky obviously but not the other

Ranicand has pretty much hit the nail on the head.
The BBC are not interested in funding development on what is effectively a foreign operator's platform. It's the same reason we cannot access iPlayer. The only reason you can receive the interactive on sky is because we receive the same broadcast as the UK do so the interactive is already there.

While both UPC and Sky use the OpenTV middleware platform, both are very different broadcast platforms so it's not a matter of simply being able to rebroadcast the interactive over the cable network. It's also not possible to come to an agreement with Virgin, say, to mirror the BBC systems onto UPC as Virgin use yet another middleware, Liberate.

RTÉ have not had any interactive type services as, up to now, they've not had a platform on which to develop them. The BBC have always had FreeView (and more recently, FreeSat) in the UK and linking the services across to other systems can be done relatively easily. With the launch of SaorView TV here shortly, it gives RTÉ a platform on which they can begin to develop DTV applications which can then be branched out to other platforms if they wish.

scottyboy

If you have a moment, check out the EuroNews channel and press the Red Button. Up pops Digital Teletext!!! I wonder if they are testing out the Red button options as UPC did suggest they would be offering Interactive services sometime this year :pac:

Oh, I have a Cisco Digital+ HD box in Dublin.

nocal

But the red button function on Euronews and the information channel is only a glorified text service.

I am sure that I read here before that UPC in Holland do have red button interactive services and that they are running it there as a proof of concept.

scottyboy

nocal wrote: »

But the red button function on Euronews and the information channel is only a glorified text service.

I am sure that I read here before that UPC in Holland do have red button interactive services and that they are running it there as a proof of concept.

Sorry, I didn't read the thread fully so didn't see icdg's post! Sorry for the repeat!

icdg

Kensington wrote: »

Ranicand has pretty much hit the nail on the head.. The BBC have always had FreeView (and more recently, FreeSat) in the UK and linking the services across to other systems can be done relatively easily. .

Should be pointed out that the middleware on Freeview (MHEG-5) and Sky (OpenTV) is different, of course. The BBC have always had to maintain different versions of BBC Red Button for both these platforms as well as for cable. Why RTÉ have decided to ignore cable and satellite in favour of a DTT platform that officially at least has zero viewers, I am not sure. There's no reason why they couldn't have pressed ahead with cable and satellite versions in the interim.

Kensington

icdg wrote: »

Should be pointed out that the middleware on Freeview (MHEG-5) and Sky (OpenTV) is different, of course. The BBC have always had to maintain different versions of BBC Red Button for both these platforms as well as for cable. Why RTÉ have decided to ignore cable and satellite in favour of a DTT platform that officially at least has zero viewers, I am not sure. There's no reason why they couldn't have pressed ahead with cable and satellite versions in the interim.

It has "officially" zero viewers as it hasn't launched yet...

Sky charge hefty figures to launch interactive on their platform.
UPC, until recently, was a mish-mash of ex-Chorus OpenTV boxes and ex-NTL Liberate boxes.
We've had no DTT up to now.

With SaorView TV coming online, it now provides a platform for RTÉ to develop interactive applications, if they wish, and then creates the possibility to have these ported over to other platforms.